The Greatest Love of All
by Eccentric Dreamer
Summary: This is the story of a man who laid dying, until his past came back to haunt him but not in a form he would ever have expected&the story of three unlikely heroines.He will never be the same again & neither will they.They are more connected than they think
1. The Foretold Journey

**(Disclaimer: I do not own POTO, Leroux does. But my friends and I own Jamie, Kaitlin & Jlee since they are us. A/N: Bold and Italic words are spoken in French.)**

The figure watched from a gilded window as the tourists below gazed up at the golden dome high above them, sparkling like a jewel in the sky. The figure's eyes continued to watch the group throughout their tour. He watched with satisfaction as their gasps of wonder could be heard throughout the Opera House as they viewed the sight within the grand doors. The growing anticipation could almost be felt in the air, like a heavy blanket being held upon the scene. As the group ventured onto the stage they viewed the grand masterpiece of engineering with wide smiles and eyes. Some blushed at the golden statues that adorned the theatre, twisted amongst some of the pillars in both theatrical and sometimes sensual poses. Throughout the tour, the guide spoke of the Opera's history and its legends, one of which many knew by heart; thus the guide kept close watch making sure none strayed searching for clues to the reality of the infamous legend.

The eyes of the one viewing the group caught three distinct individuals that throughout the whole tour seemed to be restless, as if just waiting for a chance to get off the tour or sneak off. He gripped the letter that he held looking down at it once more and reading its contents; he looked back at the three stragglers, it seemed they were the ones the opera had been waiting for, for over one hundred and twenty years. He was surprised they actually came, all the times he read the letter it seemed just a prank; a well calculated prank made a century before, but a good one. The only thing he couldn't understand was what made them special, he had seen many so called "phan girls" in his days as the manager of the opera, what made these three so special. Why was their coming to the opera foretold? The letter he held in his hands was a century or so old, crinkled despite being well taken care of by each generation of managers that took responsibility of the opera.

As the tour came toward an end, he watched as the foretold events in the letter continued to happen.

The older one of three turned towards her two friends, eyes gleaming with excitement, "We better escape soon, the longer we wait the more chances we'll get caught by the time we finally do."

The one she specifically spoke to answered with a hushed urgent whisper, "Ok, do you think if I pretend to pass out and you guys help me out, it will be enough of a diversion?"

Still the third turned exasperated towards her two friends slightly chiding them with her voice, plainly showing she disapproved of the whole plan, "That will never work, it's far too cliché. Plus they'd probably have someone come with us to escort us to the first aid." Thus they once again went back to listening to the tour guide finish up her discussion on why the Opera House was one of the grandest of all attractions in Paris; that was until the leader of the bunch (the one who suggested passing out) turned towards both of her friends and whispered her plan. The elder one smiled and nodded while the other merely shook her head.

The three then separated themselves from the group, with the excuse of having to find restrooms; the tour guide saw through their disguises, but with a sign from the well-hidden manager she allowed them to leave. As the manager slipped through the secret passages that the letter had mentioned, that all managers throughout the generations had learned under oath, he felt much like the Opera's infamous legend, the Opera Ghost. Unlike most they did not head for the dormitories or even Box #5, no they went a whole different direction. They ran silently down the hall afraid of being caught.

"We shouldn't do this, who knows what they'll do if they find us trespassing." The voice came from the most skeptical of the three, a young woman of medium height whose fathomless brown eyes were very aggravated, she would glance every few moments around just waiting for someone to jump out and catch them.

The darker one smiled, "Well technically we haven't trespassed…yet."

The other excited one, a tall young woman with shoulder length blonde hair that swayed as she walked, turned towards the girl lingering behind. Her smile was perhaps the brightest of them all and her eyes twinkled with nearly uncontained glee. "Plus, I'd never forgive myself if I didn't try to investigate my most favorite book setting while I had the chance. I'm sure Jamie here would agree with me." She winked at her older friend, while she answered with a happy nod.

As they turned down another corridor, thankfully oddly enough vacant, the leader continued speaking in excited hushed tones, "We won't be able to go to the places I originally hoped we could like the Prima Donna's dressing room or the 2nd entrance to the undergrounds; which I kind of expected would happen. So we are going to just have to check out the last thing on the list. Jlee, it won't be too dangerous or anything, I promise; and if it starts to be then we can always go back."

"Just a little bit obsessed, yeah right…" Jlee mumbled underneath her breath.

"Heard that!" Kitty laughed, and continued on, "There might not be anything at the place I want to check out; but it is worth trying; after all we are already here in Paris its worth a shot."

"Alright fine, but if we get caught don't say I didn't warn you." Jlee began to relax a little bit and a matching smile that was on her two other friends' faces started to shine through her worried looks.

"I'm surprised; I thought you had a sense of adventure, my dear friend." Jamie looked at Jlee with a mock look of shock, her hand to her chest in a dramatic pose.

"Yes, for we are on a perilous mission we must fit the part of the infamous 3 musketeers!" The other young woman gave a sweeping bow towards her other friend.

Jlee looked at both her friends with a raised eyebrow, "My sense of adventure, huh?"

Before their comedy routine could continue they arrived at their destination, the stables of the theatre.

Jamie turned toward Kitty, "The stables?" Her disappointed tone was not missed by Kitty.

"I know it may not be the most glamorous or exciting of places on the outside but I was thinking about it during the tour. I think we might be able to find a trap door leading to either the underground lake or the spring, or perhaps even both." Her friends looked at her with blank stares. "Oh, come on think! If the Opera Ghost existed as the many facts seem to show he most likely did. Jlee, I'll let your eye rolling pass just this one, since I'm on a role." The girl called Kitty looked briefly at the other blonde before continuing on with her thoughts. "As the tour guide brought out, there was actually a horse named Caesar that fitted Leroux's description that lived and performed during the time period that was marked with the mysterious happenings of the Opera Ghost. So O.G. had to have had a way to transfer the horse to the undergrounds without being noticed by the stagehands that kept watch over the animals 24/7. My idea is that there is in fact a trap door either at the end of Caesar's old stable, or maybe even under it."

For the first time since they had split off from the main tour Jlee actually looked excited, "Sounds like a definite possibility, only one question how are we even going to get that close to the stall with the attendants watching over it right now?" They had come into the courtyard of the stables and already had begun to draw unneeded attention to themselves from the various stable hands.

Jamie turned looking straight at the other eyes looking at her and her friends, and then her eyes landed on the person she sought for. "Well there is always the direct approach." With that explanation she marched herself over to the man in charge of all the others, while her wide eyed friends watched and then followed behind her. **"**_**Monsieur**_**?" **

The man was tall and burly and would have been quite intimidating if it weren't for the sparkle that lit up his coal black eyes as he saw the girls come forward. "_**Oui, Mademoiselles**_**?"**

_**"My friends and I have come a long ways and we were hoping to get your permission to look at some of your stables." **_The man's eyes crinkled and his laughter lines become visible as he tried to cough down a laugh. The sight he must have seen, three well dressed young women standing before him asking if they could inspect his stables.

Kitty seeing why he would think the question would be funny, stepped forward and continued what her friend had started, _**"You see my friends and I are convinced that if the Opera Ghost truly existed he would quite possibly have had a trap door in one of the Opera's stables." **_

The stable boss raised an eyebrow questioningly, _**"And why might I ask do you think there would be one here?"**_

Kitty continued, _**"Simple because Caesar existed. We believe that there had to have been a trap door of some sort that the Phantom would use to transport the horse down to his lair without drawing the attention of those who looked after the stable."**_

This time the man's smile and eyebrow raise was for a completely different reason, _**"I'm impressed; I've seen many of you kind of girls around this Opera House over the many years I have been here, but never have I had one come here in search of proof of the Opera Ghost. I am truly honored. You may look through the stables if you wish; only problem is shortly after the mysterious events of the Opera, there was a fire that destroyed many of the stables. The horses were saved, all but one who seemed to have made it out but disappeared shortly afterwards. Caesar himself."**_ He began to walk the girls over to the stables, which thankfully for them were currently being cleaned out and didn't hold horses. _**"The names of the horses before the fire were always carved elegantly on the post outside the stall…but in this case I believe someone told me once that in front of Caesar's stall there had been some strange writing carved into the stone floor."**_

_**"It was probably in Persian or the dialect of Persia at the time…that seems to have escaped me at the moment…" **_Kitty began at the farthest stall while the others began at the other end and the middle.

_**"I'll leave you three to it, as long as you promise not to get in trouble**_." The man smiled and left after the promises followed his statement. The manager of the opera who had been watching them from the very beginning watched them curiously as they meticulously began looking for the writing carved into the large stone floor of the stables. They seemed very diligent not missing an inch, looking even on the new walls of the stable briefly just in case an earlier set of eyes had found the markings. He was also impressed at the way they had learnt to speak French before arriving in Paris, instead of just assuming as many tourists did that there would be people that could speak their home language no matter where they went. His thoughts were interrupted as the girl named Jlee shouted for the others to come to where she was.

"It's in Arabic writing…it's a name; let me see if I can read it." (Later on when the the manager looked at the carving this is what he saw غرامة قيصر; he was surprised she was able to read it, but by that time though he had realized that the three girls were not ordinary.) Jlee excitingly looked at the stone sounding out the syllables, "Good…Caesar…no…I think it means Fine Caesar."

"You found it, Jlee, good work! Jamie could you help me look at the wall for a trigger while Jlee can you help clear the floor of the hay a bit?" They got to busying themselves again, a newfound energy in their efforts, but soon their energy began to grow week as the time went by.

"I don't think we are going to find a switch Kaitlin." Jamie looked at the other with a sad look on her face, while the other still searched frantically.

"No, it has to be here…I was so sure of it…" Kitty looked down at the stone floor underneath her feet seeing not even a hint of a trap door.

"I think Jamie is right Kitty…if there is a trigger it would be on the other side of this not actually in the stall."

"But he had to have had a way to…to…" Tears sprung unwillingly to Kitty's eyes and she turned away from the others so they wouldn't see her getting emotional. All her life she had believed Erik truly existed and yet now her last chance to prove that he did was ruined; she had failed. But then it wasn't as if she could change his past, merely by knowing that it indeed did happen; if he did exist, he would have died a century ago…and there was nothing she could have done about that. "I was just so sure that I'd be able to find something of his…" She leaned up against the back of the stall, before sliding down to wrap her arms around her knees and hit her head on the wall of the Opera; but before she could say, "Ouch," she fell through the wall and landed on her back. As she lay stunned, she heard her surprised friends' cries as the tumbled down the ramp that the trap door had opened up from the stall's floor. She leaned over the edge to look at the tunnel below the stall, "Are you guys still alive?" Some laughing oks were all she got for a reply before she made her way down the ramp only to have it closing on her and so she had to jump to the unknown floor below. "Should have just used my head in the beginning, after all." She laughed as ramp closed above their heads, Kaitlin hurriedly spoke to the others, "Wait, don't move until I get you guys some light." She fumbled through her bag until she felt the long cylinder shape of her non-battery powered flashlight. "Hope this works, or we are sunk." She shook the flashlight vigorously and then pressed the button turning it on. "It's not a strong light but its good enough as long as we stick together."

"There was actually a trap door after all." Jlee looked about the cobwebbed corridor with a look of amazement on her face.

Jamie sneezed and then laughed, "So onward?"

"Well it all depends on what Jlee says. So what do you say my friend, go forward or find a way back?"

"Oh…to H-E-double hockey sticks, as you often say Kitty; lets do this thing!"

Their laughs echoed through the vacant halls as they moved forward following the very faint sound of water running; what they didn't know was that they were being followed by the one who had been watching from the very start. Soon enough they came to a more open area and the flashlight didn't give off enough light.

The dark haired woman went over to the farthest wall and touched it, "Kitty there seems to be engraved spaces running along the walls, like troughs and they have something in them. Let me see…its gunpowder, I'm sure of it…but it's been used before which is odd. I think it's used for lighting not for explosives." Kitty came forwards and smelled the powder as well.

"Well there's only one way to find out." In the dim light Jamie and Jlee could only barely see the eerie grin that suddenly swept across their dear friend's face before the whole room burst into light. The "troughs" lined each wall that surrounded them and each met up at the same spot a beautifully mosaic fountain spring. The light from the flames sparkled off the gold and glass used in the mosaic that depicted a scene from an age old folktale; and yet the tale had been twisted to fit the legend each girl knew all to well. "It's the spring! We've actually found it!"

Each girl made their way around the room with gasps of wonder as they viewed the arched ceiling high above them painted more beautifully than the Sistine Chapel, none of them doubted who had painted it.

Kaitlin stood standing in front of the spring with fresh tears in her eyes and this time she let them fall, "It's so beautiful."

Her two friends appeared beside her both with strong emotions etched deeply in their faces. "Yes it is." They both agreed.

"I wish…I wish Erik could have had a second chance, just one I think would have been enough." The tears on the young woman's face continued to spill down her cheeks much resembling the spring that still flowed despite the one who had helped it flow freely being dead and gone.

Jamie looked at her friend with true remorse and whispered in reply, "Yes, I wish he did too."

Then even Jlee who had never been quite in favor of the story of the Opera Ghost, she as well said, "Me too."

Just as the last two words were spoken the three girls disappeared in a flash of light, and the open area became pitch black once again and spring stopped gurgling forth; as if the girls had never come; as if the girls had never existed. The eyes that watched the events still stared blankly out in the darkness shocked at what had happened and for once began to think that it all had not been a prank after all.


	2. Awakening a Corpse

Previously on "Learn to Be Loved":

_ "I wish…I wish Erik could have had a second chance, just one I think would have been enough." The tears on the young woman's face continued to spill down her cheeks much resembling the spring that still flowed despite the one who had helped it flow freely being dead and gone. _

_ Jamie looked at her friend with true remorse and whispered in reply, "Yes, I wish he did too."_

_ Then even Jlee who had never been quite in favor of the story of the Opera Ghost, she as well said, "Me too."_

_ Just as the last two words were spoken the three girls disappeared in a flash of light, and the open area became pitch black once again and spring stopped gurgling forth; as if the girls had never come; as if the girls had never existed. The eyes that watched the events still stared blankly out in the darkness shocked at what had happened and for once began to think that it all had not been a prank after all._

The girls were falling; falling through time. Sounds rushed past them, scenes from the past rewound around them; but they wouldn't remember much of it since to them it happened so quickly. One moment they were at the spring and the next they had landed in a dark, strange room.

Jamie fell on a hard thing which flopped over making her fall, once again, to the floor. She lifted her head and saw the flashlight rolling around near her and a small dark shape beside side, which ended up being Kaitlin's bag. She picked up both and slowly got up favoring her hurt back. She viewed her dark surroundings with the little light that issued forth from the flashlight; her eyebrows became knitted with confusion.

"Looks like something out of Transylvania." From what she saw the room they had landed in was a bedroom all done in dark colors. There was a large armoire that stood imposingly on the far side of the room, next to it was a curtained off door. The walls surrounding her seemed to both made out of rock and some out of plaster. She viewed her left side seeing the toppled over bench that she had landed on, she sighed with relief when she realized what she could have landed on; the bench belonged to a large organ, accompanied by its large copper pipes reaching up to the roof of the room. On the farthest wall near the bed, which was perhaps the largest piece of furniture in the room, was a fireplace. Suddenly she heard a moan coming from the large bed, she slowly approached it. The bed itself was quite an imposing piece of architechture, if one could say that, it rose high with its four posts of mahogany; crimson and black curtains lined all of its sides, and on the wood there were carvings, beautiful yet eerie carvings. But what was on top of the bed's sheets was perhaps the most frightening of all the "furnishings"; a long rectangular box, adorned with plain mahogany wood and the same mosaic design that had been at the spring. Jamie stifled a scream; for there right beside it was Jlee lying face down on the bed. She rushed over to her friend.

"Is that you, Jamie? Why the heck is it so dark? And why…" She trailed off as she looked to her left and gave a half squeak and yell as she fell off the bed in order to get away from the morbid object. "Why is there a coffin?"

"I don't know but one thing's for sure we are not at the spring anymore."

Kaitlin was in the worst situation though. As she fell she landed square into a dark space and heard something slam above her. It was uncomfortable and it smelled like mold or extremely old books. She shifted her weight, and instantly winced as she felt something, several somethings poking all her sides. She started pounding the top of the boxlike thing she was in trying to lift it open, but it was far too heavy.

"What is this thing? Someone let me out, please!" Her voice had an edge of almost panic in it, but she knew that panicking was the last thing she should allow herself to succumb to.

Jlee jumped farther away from the bed and the coffin as she heard the muffled voice issue from it, "The coffin is talking!" Her eyes widened in fear and her body grew rigid, until she realized that what she had earlier said didn't make a wit on sense.

"Talking?" Jamie recovered the quickest and moved back towards the object in the center of the bed. "Kaitlin is that you are you ok?"

Jamie's voice barely made it through the thickness of the enclosure surrounding Kaitlin but at hearing the sound she sighed in relief. She answered, "I think so, for now at least. Is Jlee ok, is she with you?"

"Yeah, I'm fine; I would be more worried about yourself, if I were you."

"Why?" The young woman answered from the coffin, her voice once again wavering just a bit. "Where am I exactly?"

"You mean you don't know?" Jlee leaned over the coffin so that her friend inside could hear her. Jamie tapped her on her shoulder and shook her head.

"It's good to hear your ok, I have a feeling we could have ended up a lot worst off if things had been different." Jamie continued on before her other friend could answer the question posed to her. The dark haired woman took a deep breath before continuing on, "Now, Kitty, I'm going to ask you a scary question; but don't panic ok?"

Her friend had suddenly reverted back to her pet name for her, noticing this made Kaitlin uncomfortable; she shifted her weight to her side, after being able to find a space on the side of the space she was in. "Ok."

While Kaitlin adjusted herself in the coffin, her friends had silently started to try to open the box without giving their friend a reason to panic.

Jlee whispered urgently, "It won't open!"

Jamie looked over worriedly to her other friend that was trying to find a space along the sides and lifting with all her might; "Keep trying!" she whispered back. "Now, Kitty, are you alone in the coffin?"

Silence was all that she received for her question, as the reality of what her friend had just asked seeped into Kitty's mind. Suddenly she felt like hitting herself, she was in an oblong shaped box, a perfect shape for a tall human corpse. She couldn't stop the fear once realization hit, her voice rose from the depths of the dark box, "Let me out!" She began frantically trying to push, slide the top off the coffin; she didn't want to die there, the irony itself was too morbid to even think about.

"We are trying as hard as we can!"

"Have you even thought of using a crowbar or something or did that suddenly escape both your minds?" She was growing impatient; an age old fear crept over her entire body reminding her of the worst things of her childhood, her worst fear. It was perhaps an irrational one, but it was nonetheless a fear. A fear of dead things; she really hoped that whatever she had landed on was not indeed what is put in coffins, she hoped beyond hope that they were in fact sticks that someone had put in the coffin as an odd joke. But deep down she knew it to be impossible. She knew she should feel around to see with her hands, for it was pitch dark, what she actually had fallen on but she couldn't; it was as if she was paralyzed, from her head to her toes.

Those outside weren't faring well either, they ransacked the room around them looking for some sort of lever. In doing so they ventured out into the other rooms of the seemingly vacant home they had found themselves in, it looked lived in but trashed. Tables were knocked over, paper was scattered across the floors, and one particular room that looked as different to the other bedroom as sunlight is to starlight, looked as if a tornado had hit it. Dresses lay scattered across the room, the few mirrors that were found were shattered, the ivory drapes of the rosewood four poster bed laid in tatters at the base of the bed. But even in the disarray they did not have much time to worry about the disaster around them, or the lack of anything beyond the 19th century, they had to save their friend. Finally in what looked almost like a coat closet they found a long heavy duty pole, elegantly carved in Venetian designs, like those used to steer a gondola.

They hurried back to the gothic room.

Jamie spoke to her friend that was still waiting inside the box, "We found something to try and pry it open. Please try your best to stay calm and comfortable until we get you out."

Kitty had convinced herself that the long shapes underneath her were merely sticks, like she originally thought; fearing that her childhood fear would rise up strongly if she thought otherwise. "I'll try my best, despite the fact that I seemed to have landed on top of a pile of sticks."

Her two friends above her looked at each other, eyes wide.

"I don't think those are sticks, Kitty."

That was the last thing she wanted to hear, she knew she should be stronger but the situation was so odd she didn't feel at all like herself.

Jamie became worried as her friend became unusually quiet, "Kitty are you ok?"

"I…I don't think so…"

Both knew of her irrational fear of dead things, when they got to know her and each individual friend's fears came out, hers in particular were not what most would expect. Dead things and dark water; it wasn't the idea that the dead would become zombies or something like that, it was more the fact that they were dead, no more life running through their veins. She would become almost paralyzed in fear, if put in a situation where there were dead things surrounding her. They also knew they would have to calm her down if they didn't want something really bad to happen.

Jlee looked to her friend beside her and mouthed, "I'll handle this." She had known Kaitlin quite a bit longer than Jamie had and she knew there was only one other thing that she could do when her friend got like this, and that was to get her angry. Angry enough that she would forget her fear. "Toughen up Kaitlin! Sheesh, its no time to start having a panic attack!"

Kaitlin felt her blood begin to rise slightly and she couldn't hold back the exclamation that came from her mouth, "Well, why don't you try it next time! I'd like to see how you deal with being shut up in dark, dank, small place with a dead person…" She drifted off as she felt something below her move, that's when she realized something perhaps much worse than the other conclusions. She felt around her and once again her blood began to rise but this time for a completely different reason. She couldn't believe she hadn't realized it before; it wasn't bones rather it was a body…a body with a heartbeat, however faint it was at that moment. She felt once again, and she knew then that she was blushing. "Um guys…"

They were no longer listening to her, they had renewed their efforts in trying to lift the lid to the coffin, but it wouldn't budge.

Kaitlin couldn't help the fact that she was growing frantic again, the body was definitely alive evident by one certain appendage that wouldn't be moving if it wasn't. She thanked no one particular, that the person seemed to be asleep or unconscious. "People listen to me!"

"What?" They both answered adamantly answered back.

She found herself answering with a question that she had already answered in her mind but asked on the chance that she was merely imagining it, "Do corpses'…you know…can they have…um…" She found herself blushing again, not being able to actually say the word for the thing that made her realize "he" was alive. "Can they have stiff areas that…stick out?"

"Well if they are bones, of course." Jlee lapsed into her medical minded voice, without even knowing she did so.

"No, no I'm pretty sure, this is a body; I'm pretty sure it's a guy too."

"Why do you say that?" Jamie inquired, sitting on the bed next to the coffin her original disgust pushed back into the far corners of her mind.

"Well…um…I'm pretty sure I can make out a distinct body part that you can't find on a girl; which is kind of why I think he's still alive."

"How would you be able to…?" Suddenly Jlee stopped mid-question, realizing exactly how Kitty could know; she too found herself blush a bit before swallowing once again. She couldn't help but ask the next question, her curiosity eating away at her, "Is it big?"

Jamie covered mouth so as to not allow a bunch of unladylike giggles to shoot forth, that was the last question she'd thought she'd hear.

Kitty frowned at the question and shifted her weight trying to get away from the appendage in question, "I'm not even going to answer that question, Jlee."

Jlee recovered and cleared her throat, looking over to Jamie, "Jamie we need to get her out of there, as quickly as we can."

"Right! Working on it, maybe if we tried to slide it, instead of lift it, it might open." She looked down at the coffin, mid push; her dark hair had fallen from her neat braided bun and swung in front of her eyes, sweat had begun to mist over her forehead; "Kitty, try your hardest not to think about it; and before you know it we'll have you out in a jiffy."

Kitty felt so useless, especially as she felt the air get even thicker; she was past panicking as she realized they were losing oxygen, her and the stranger that occupied the box. The body beneath her shifted, he seemed to be restless, she decided that he must be in a rather deep sleep, still dreaming; gathering up courage she felt for his head and shoulders. He was very thin, so much so that it was almost as if he was anorexic, his ribs poked out from his clothes. He was tall perhaps six foot two, she judged this from her height which was about six foot, but he stretch out underneath her at least a few inches taller. As she felt his long slender fingers, she wondered how he had even lived this long. But she also thought about her favorite character, Erik, if he had truly lived as the spring seemed to show then he as well, would have been of similar frame. Her revelries were broken as the man below her trembled below her, a whisper of a voice came forth, and she would have missed it if she wasn't as close as she was to him.

"Christine, you came…"

Kaitlin was confused, so similar to the story that filled her mind, she began to think she had finally gone off; she had truly become insane. But she didn't have much time to think upon her new mental condition, as two skeletal arms wrapped around her, drawing her even closer to the body that smelt so old, and the appendage that still shook and grew with excitement. She squeaked in fear, this couldn't be happening it couldn't. She tried to struggle out of his embrace but even in near-death the man was strong and wouldn't loosen his hold on her. "Help, please." Her voice shook with desperation.

Jamie's calm resolve broke as she heard friend's distress call, and said the first thing that came to her head. "Think of baseball!"

Jlee followed in her lead, "Cold showers!"

"Grandma!"

If Kitty wasn't in such an uncomfortable and frightening situation she would have laughed. "It's not like its me!"

"Well we don't know what else to do or say." Jamie cried in desperation, she pushed up against the top slab of the coffin once more.

The man's tight grip was loosening and slowly his arms drooped down, her head was pressed down to his chest where he had embraced her, her head shot up and hit the top of the coffin, "Ow!"

"Oh for goodness sake what happened now?" Jlee was at the end of her rope, she was about to take a pick to the coffin if nothing else worked.

"He's dying! His heart beat just stopped! What should I do?"

"CPR?"

"Ok…" Although she was disgusted with everything that had happened thus far, it wasn't as if the man was intentionally at fault and he was still a life; Kitty realized that she had to do something, she couldn't just lay still and let him die literally in her arms. She once again, looked for his head; up his broad thin shoulders, up his icy cold neck and then to his face. She flinched, the skin felt taunt, and he felt hollow, sunken in; hurriedly she searched for his nose but she couldn't find it, it wasn't there. The man didn't have a nose, just a cavity; she thought of asking the others what to do but there wasn't enough time, so she did the best she could. She covered the space where the nose should have been, which wasn't the easiest to do since the limited space in the coffin and then guided her lips to his. She breathed air into his lungs and then put her hands clasped as well as she could where his heart was and pumped, several times whacking her head on the top of the coffin. She repeated her actions three times, checking to see if his heartbeat came back.

"It's not working!"

"Keep it up! We are trying our best on our side." Jamie, the ever balanced one spoke loudly for both her friends to hear.

Kaitlin tried one last time, she wasn't sure how much longer she could keep it up; she herself was starting to feel dizzy from lack of air. "Please, please live." She went through the procedure one last time, and when she put an ear to his chest, she almost started crying as she heard the faintest of heart beats. He still wasn't breathing, but she was more confident now that he would. After two more tries his chest began to rise once again with halting breaths. She thought of telling her friends above that they were running out of air, but they were already working so hard she didn't want to put anymore pressure on them. Plus, she was so very, very tired; she decided to take just as small nap, it couldn't hurt anything, there wasn't much else she could do after all; so she laid her head on the chest next to her and soon fell fast asleep to the sounds of quiet breathing beneath her. She would wake later on too much better circumstances; sadly her friends wouldn't be as fortunate.

Her friends had not found a way to get the coffin open, and finally sat back and began to worry that they'd never get their friend out.

"Maybe it's opened by a hidden switch or something." Jlee wiped her brow, still gazing at the coffin thinking of ways to get it open.

"We'll start looking as soon as we take a short breather; us collapsing won't do Kitty any good."

Both girls slid down the wall opposite of the bed and sat down, no sooner did they do so did they hear the faintest of clicks and suddenly the coffin's lid slid open.

Jlee barely had time to say, "I knew it slid back," before two shapes began to rise from the coffin. Both girls got up and started moving towards the coffin, but then abruptly stopped. The dark shape was indeed a man, a horribly ugly man; a man that was more of a skeleton than anything else. His face was sunken in with an almost yellowish tinge to it; suddenly they wished they hadn't lit the candles in the room that made him even more frightening. His eyes glinted with a hidden fire he stared at them with his burning eyes. They began to shrink back a bit. He was tall and formidable, despite the fact that he seemed to barely be able to hold up the precious cargo that he held in both arms. Kaitlin was draped across his arms like a lifeless doll, and the girls thought at first she was dead until she stirred ever so slightly and not knowing of the man that held her snuggled closer to his chest with a small mumble.

"Let her go!" Jlee came out of her shock, she looked ready to lunge. Her body was rigid, her face had lost its normal healthy glow and her eyes pierced the stranger's eyes back, as if just daring him to make a move.

A voice issued from the skeletal skull and through the thin lips that barely parted, "Follow me." It was not a request, it was order; from a voice that both girls would later on not be able to describe in words; it was soft, melodic and threatening all at once. It made them frightened and awed all at the same time; but the fear reigned over everything else. As they stood stunned the man started making his way out of the room.

"How dare you!" Jlee went to lunge at him, but was suddenly held back by Jamie.

Jamie stood there staring at the new person in the room with her mouth agape, "I can't believe it, it's actually you…you actually existed." As soon as she saw his face, all the pieces came together, standing before them was the haunted the dreams of their dearest friend; the Phantom of the Opera himself. "It's impossible."


End file.
